The Am Law 100's modest gains hint that a fundamental recovery is taking root.

In fiscal 2012, The Am Law 100 posted modest gains on our key metrics. For gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per partners, firms notched low single-digit year-over-year in­creases. But these averages belied the unevenness of the recovery. Only 76 firms reported gross revenue increases last year. And only 66 firms had profit per partner increases—down from 80 firms and 72 firms, respectively, on the previous year's Am Law 100 list.